Many organizations, including Google, have moved quickly to embrace working from home. With this widespread remote work, it’s never been more important for IT admins to be certain that every device in their organization is secure, even when that device isn’t company-owned. 

We pioneered zero-trust security through our BeyondCorp strategy and leverage it to offer advanced security for G Suite* users to protect secure access for all devices. Admins can enforce these controls across G Suite and other corporate applications and data, ensuring consistent security and user experience across your organization.

Today, we’re laying out six key controls that IT admins can use within G Suite to help keep their organizations safe when using the bring your own device approach (BYOD). You can also review our detailed security checklist here, and learn more from our course on Managing G Suite here. 

Secure mobile and desktop devices with endpoint management

BYOD devices can differ widely across an organization, with a range of OS versions, hardware modes, patch versions, and more, so it’s impossible to rely on a one-size-fits-all approach to device management. With Google endpoint management, IT admins can easily support a variety of mobile and desktop devices by enforcing measures like minimum software versions and blocking jailbroken or rooted devices, in many cases without requiring full device rights for employee privacy. 

When it comes to managing mobile devices, G Suite offers basic and advanced mobile device management:

• With basic mobile device management, BYOD devices are secured with baseline security features with no end user friction. Admins can enforce a passcode, get a device inventory, wipe Google accounts remotely, and even remotely install applications on Android devices. 
• With advanced mobile device management, admins can apply more policy controls over BYOD devices, and Android users can keep their personal data private and separate from their work data with Android Work Profiles. You can also allow and manage work apps on iOS and Android devices.

Admins can also manage and secure desktop devices with fundamental device management and enhanced desktop security for Windows. With fundamental device management, when a user logs into G Suite through any browser on a Windows, Mac, Chrome, or Linux device, that device will be automatically enrolled with endpoint management. This provides a base level of security to every desktop device that accesses G Suite data. With enhanced desktop security for Windows, admins can easily manage and secure Windows 10 devices through the admin console.

Enable secure connections without a corporate VPN using context-aware access

Context-aware access offers protection from unwanted access to G Suite services without the need for a VPN, and allows admins to set up different access levels based on a user’s identity and the context of the request, taking into account factors such as the country, device security status, and IP address of the request. For example, you can require BYOD devices accessing G Suite to meet encryption and password requirements, or restrict contractors from accessing G Suite from company managed Chromebooks.

Control data access with app access control

It’s important to protect all devices in your organization—corporate or BYOD—from malicious apps trying to gain access to corporate data. Using app access control, admins can take steps to prevent these apps from tricking users into mistakenly granting access to corporate data. With this feature, admins can choose which third-party apps are allowed to access users’ G Suite data by explicitly trusting, limiting, or blocking access for apps.

Enforce 2-Step Verification

With 2-Step Verification, admins can reduce the risk of unauthorized access by asking users for additional proof of identity when signing in. And you can now use the Advanced Protection Program—our strongest protection for users at risk of targeted attacks. With the Advanced Protection Program for the enterprise, we’ll enforce a specific set of policies for enrolled users including security key enforcement, blocking access to untrusted apps and enhanced scanning for email threats

If you choose not to use security keys for any reason, you have multiple other options to enforce 2-Step Verification on BYOD devices. For Android and iOS, you can use Google prompt, Google Authenticator, text message, or phone call options for a second verification step.

Prevent data loss and leakage with data loss prevention

We know that as an admin, one of your highest priorities is to keep internal information safe and secure. That’s why we developed data loss prevention (DLP) policies to help protect sensitive information in Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Gmail from loss, misuse, or being accessed by unauthorized users. With G Suite DLP, admins can choose which types of data are sensitive and exactly how to protect them. Our controls enable easy detection of a wide variety of common info types, and administrators can supplement this with custom content detectors to meet their organization’s needs. You can also classify files in Drive automatically using DLP rules (beta) to categorize your data by sensitivity levels. DLP works on all the devices in your organization, including BYOD ones, since the protection is at the data and application level. 

In addition to DLP, you can use DXP for iOS devices to restrict the copy/pasting of G Suite data to other accounts, personal or otherwise. DXP for iOS can also restrict users’ ability to drag and drop files from specific apps within their G Suite account. Similarly, you can use Google endpoint management to configure Android devices to prevent data sharing between personal and work profiles.

Make retention and eDiscovery possible on all your devices with Vault

To support your organization’s retention and eDiscovery needs, Vault enables corporate data that’s stored in G Suite and accessed by BYOD devices to be available for all your information governance needs. No matter the owner of the device, your organization’s data stored in Gmail, Drive, Chat, Groups, Voice, and Meet are accessible to Vault.

Using the zero-trust security model, the G Suite features above work together to keep your data protected and organization secure across all devices, whether they’re corporate-owned or BYOD.

(*Google Workspace was previously G Suite)

The combination of a vital need for IT experts among businesses and a digital skills gap is making lifelong learning increasingly critical. Beyond professional development, learning new skills offers additional rewards from building peer connections to boosting your creativity. That’s why in 2020 Krishna Deepak Nallamilli and I launched KIMO.ai to reimagine how people approach learning, especially in developing markets. Our team is building the artificial intelligence needed to generate individual learning paths through a wide range of quality digital learning content.

Google Cloud and its Startup Program have been instrumental in connecting our team with the tools, people, processes, and best practices to grow our business. 

Existing learning platforms lack engagement

Outside of traditional education settings, massive open online learning courses (MOOCs)—often modeled after university courses—can provide a flexible and affordable way to upskill or reskill. But the vast majority of people who participate in MOOC programs fail to complete courses. Based on our research, the challenge with existing learning platforms is a lack of engagement, primarily caused by limited direction on which skills to learn, whether AI, fintech, blockchain, or other in-demand disciplines.   

We’ve also received feedback that many corporate learning management systems–developed as online training systems to upskill employees–tend to be poorly designed and time-consuming to use. 

Overall, a significant challenge with most existing learning platforms is that they’re generic. For example, suppose you’re interested in learning about AI. In that case, you need AI-related coursework that applies to your industry and the job you want because AI in medicine is vastly different from AI in financial services. Today’s online learning options typically take a one-size-fits-all approach and fail to capture the nuances of what learners really need to get ahead. 

Building a future-proof learning platform 

The commitment to highly personalized, accessible learning inspired KIMO.ai, a platform that we believe is the future of education. Depending on your goals, current skills, location, and other factors, our AI-based platform will identify which coursework (and where to find those classes) to build the skills you need. The more personalized, relevant learning recommendations even take into account people’s preferences for podcasts, MOOCs, books, articles, videos, courses, publications, and more.  

In a mix of cooperation and competition we call “coopetition,” KIMO.ai will regularly recommend courses from other established online learning systems if, based on our automated assessment, it’s the best option for a learner. There’s also the option to access free content only. 

Google cultural alignment fosters trust

Our platform started with one developer exploring NLP models and Google APIs. As we’ve grown our team and launched our beta to 110,000 users in developing markets, we discovered there is a lot of interest in our platform, and we believe we can make a significant impact. In feedback forums, we also learned that we need to focus our efforts on the mobile experience to improve engagement since 99% of the beta testers use mobile devices. 

Beyond our team’s high level of trust in Google Cloud solutions, our team also appreciates the cultural alignment with Google. We value Google’s developer-centric approach and rely on tools like Dataflow for batch data processing and Cloud TPU to reliably run machine learning models with AI services on Google Cloud. We also build all of our deployments on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), which makes it easy to manage all our containerized workloads 

On the front end, Google App Engine makes it easy to deploy apps and experiment, and it integrates seamlessly with Firebase for authentication and more. BigQuery is our serverless data warehouse that efficiently scales to support the millions of articles, videos, and other learning resources we need to analyze to provide the targeted coursework recommendations our learners require.

As we grow our business having a network of trusted advisors is also extremely valuable. By working closely with DoIT International, the 2020 Google Cloud Global Reseller Partner of the Year, our team has access to their cloud, Kubernetes, and machine learning expertise. DoIT has already helped us quickly resolve IT issues and create analytics dashboards that give us insights to continually enhance our services. 

Building for a growing industry

The dynamic edtech market is growing rapidly and estimated to become an $11B industry by 2025. We’re proud to be part of the next wave of personalized education that has the potential to empower people in developing markets and beyond to grow their skills with coursework tailored to their exact needs and how they like to learn. This year, we will deliver our platform to at least 400,000 more people. We’re excited to see how they use it and where it takes them. 

If you want to learn more about how Google Cloud can help your startup, visit our Startup Program application page here to get more information about our program, and sign up for our communications to get a look at our community activities, digital events, special offers, and more.

Reboot your Startup with our technical guided series

At Google Cloud, we want to provide you with the access to all the tools you need to grow your business. Through the Google Cloud Technical Guides for Startups, leverage industry leading solutions with how-to video guides and resources curated for startups. 

This multi-series contains 3 chapters: Start, Build and Grow, which matches your startup’s  journey:

• The Start Series: Begin by building, deploying and managing new applications on Google Cloud from start to finish.
• The Build Series: Optimize and scale existing deployments to reach your target audiences.
• The Grow Series: Grow and attain scale with deployments on Google Cloud.

Additionally, at Google we have the Google for Startups Cloud Program, which is designed to help your business get off the ground and enable a sustainable growth plan for the future. The start of the Build Series delineates the benefits of the program, the application process, and more to help your business get started on Google Cloud.

A quick recap of the Build Series

Once you have applied for the Google for Startups Cloud Program, there’s so much to explore and try out on Google Cloud. 

Figuring out a rapid but solid application development process can be key to many businesses in reducing time to market. Furthermore, learning what database to use to handle application data can be tricky. Deep dive into our Firestore video which walks through how Firestore can help you unlock application innovation with simplicity and speed.

We then move on to a deep dive into BigQuery and how it can help businesses. BigQuery is designed to support analysis over petabytes of data regardless of whether it’s structured or unstructured. This video is the goto video for getting started on BigQuery!If you are someone looking to run your Spark and Hadoop jobs faster and on the cloud, look to Dataproc. To learn more about Dataproc and how this has helped other customers with their Hadoop clusters, click the video below to learn all things Dataproc related.

Next, we find out what Dataflow can bring to your business; some advantages, sample architectures, demos on the console, and how other customers are using Dataflow. 

We also talked about Machine Learning, starting from selecting the right ML solution to Machine Learning APIs on cloud to exploring Vertex AI. Following that we look into API management in Google Cloud and how Apigee helps operate your APIs with enhanced scale, security, and automation.

We ended the series with the last two episodes focusing around security deep-dive and using Cloud Tasks and Cloud Scheduler.

Coming up next – The Grow Series

Dive into the next chapter of this multi-series, with our upcoming Grow Series, where we will be focusing on growing and attaining scale with deployments on Google Cloud.

Check out our website and join us by checking out the video series on the Google Cloud Tech channel, and subscribe to stay up to date. 

See you in the cloud!

As business leaders evaluate their hybrid work models, employee productivity is top of mind. They’re trying to understand how to balance organizational needs for productivity with employee needs for autonomy, flexibility, and work/life balance. In my role as Google’s Productivity Advisor, I help organizations and employees realize that being productive means working smartly and efficiently — not overworking. And one key to productivity is developing strong time management skills.

Recent research found that 82% of workers don’t have a proper time management system, however. Instead, they rely on making lists, referencing their inbox, or simply winging it. And the result is telling: 21% of people say “their work is never under control or only under control one day per week.”

Everyone works differently, and one of the best things about hybrid work is that it empowers people to work in their own way, at their own pace. However, if your employees are managing their time inefficiently over the long term, their risk of burnout increases — which can be bad news for employee wellbeing, morale and productivity.

In order for any hybrid work plan to be effective and your teams to be healthy, your employees need to build their time management muscle. You can help them do so with a three-step process:

1. Understand how your employees are currently managing their time
2. Encourage your employees to identify time management strengths and areas for improvement
3. Empower your employees to maximize their time management practices

Step 1: Understanding your employees’ work habits

Before you can help your employees manage their time more effectively, you first need to understand how they spend it. To start, identify habits that might be preventing your employees from establishing productive workflows. For example, some employees might be working too much outside of business hours or spending the majority of their working hours in meetings.

While observation may help you glean some of this information, it’s best to go straight to the source. To find out if your employees feel they’re managing their time efficiently, simply ask them! You can distribute an anonymous questionnaire using a survey tool, like Google Forms, with questions like:

• Are you having trouble getting all your work done?
• Do you feel like you have enough independent working time?
• Do alerts and notifications interrupt or enhance your workflow?
• Which productivity and collaboration tools do you find the most and the least useful?
• How do you communicate best with your coworkers when working on- and off-site?

One major hurdle to effective time management can be too many meetings. To learn if meeting fatigue is plaguing your teams, include a survey question asking employees if they feel like they devote too much time to meetings. Help them get specific by encouraging them to use a tool like Time Insights. With this feature, employees can see exactly how much time they spend in meetings and how much focus time they schedule each week to accurately answer your survey.

Fielding an anonymous questionnaire is a great way to start your time management audit. The learnings that emerge can help you identify patterns in your workplace and among your teams — but they won’t reveal how individual employees work. For that, you’ll need to reach out to them directly.

Step 2: Identifying individual strengths to harness and areas for improvement

Once you have a general idea of how your team works, you can dig deeper into your individual employees’ time management methods and working styles. With this information, you can then help them identify the practices that work — and don’t work — for them.

Suggest to your employees that they spend a week observing their productivity patterns and time management methods. You might encourage people to look at:

• Their level of energy at different times during the day and/or on different days of the week
• The different types of work, such as strategic or administrative, they like doing and when
• How much time they spend doing work versus communicating about work
• How they feel during and after group meetings
• The amount of time they spend in deep-focus versus time spent switching among different tasks

If your organization uses digital timesheets, your employees can consult built-in, automatic time-tracking insights to see where they’re spending their time. Otherwise, you can easily create a custom time-tracking app using a no-code solution like AppSheet to help your employees measure the time they devote to their various responsibilities.

Once everyone has completed their weeklong study, set up dedicated meetings to review your employees’ observations with them individually. Armed with this new understanding, you and your employees can clarify when and how each person does their best work, identify areas for improvement, and start adjusting accordingly.

Step 3: Empowering your employees to flex their time management muscle

Now that you have clarity on how your employees spend their time, you can work with them to develop personal time management practices. To set them up for success, look for opportunities that take advantage of their strengths and offset their challenges — no matter how they like to work.

It’s important to remember there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to using time productively. Some workers love to tackle the most difficult tasks first thing in the morning; others feel more energized at the end of their day. Some people think best in conversation while others prefer to be alone with their thoughts. To help your employees develop time management practices that fit their working style, they need to feel empowered to decide how they can use their time and tools productively.

When it comes to time management, calendars are your best friend, so encourage your employees to take advantage of simple features. Google Calendar lets everyone see availability; by glancing at a shared calendar, coworkers will know when to reach out to someone (and when not to). You can also prompt your employees to block off quiet time during windows when they feel most productive, and use tools like Focus time to protect the time they need for heads-down work.

Email and chat are important, but they can also become a distraction if not used intentionally. Most people open email first thing in the morning, leave it open all day, and check it often. Instead, when you and your employees need to focus, try closing the email tab or using Gmail features to snooze and star emails to stay on task. The same approach applies to chat: check it strategically and turn off notifications when you need deep focus.

Finally, be intentional about building and maintaining trust with your teams as they develop new time management skills. If you decide to use Google Meet for regular check-ins, partner with your employees to develop meeting agendas directly inside Calendar invites to ensure your shared time will be used efficiently.

Valuing impact over output

Hybrid work offers an opportunity for business leaders to rethink their perspective on employee time management and what it means to be productive. Remember, the goal of building effective time management skills isn’t always to become more efficient so one can take on additional work. Often times, taking a step back helps us simplify how we work in order to deepen our impact. When you empower your employees to create a personal time management system, I think you’ll find they will be happier and healthier, with more to contribute to your organization.